What Is an Enterprise Collaboration System?

Collaborative Work Guide

To survive in the current climate, the modern enterprise has to adapt. The COVID-19 pandemic called traditional ways of working into question and highlighted the importance of the remote and hybrid work models. These days, an enterprise has to adopt Agile policies to make rolling with the punches easier and afford employees a greater degree of flexibility. 56% of respondents to the State of Agile report claimed they would prefer to continue working in a hybrid work environment post-COVID.

Enterprise collaboration can underpin an Agile framework, streamlining intra-departmental workflows and promoting cross-functionality. With a focus on collaboration, there’s a positive knock-on effect on communication, productivity levels, and talent retention. In fact, effective communication can lead to 4.5 times higher employee retention.

Yet enterprise collaboration is more than boosting morale with team-building initiatives and sharing a mission statement. In this guide, we’ll answer the following questions:

What is an enterprise collaboration system?
What is enterprise collaboration?

What is enterprise collaboration?

To successfully integrate collaboration as a core value in your organization, you need to implement an enterprise collaboration system (ECS). An ECS simply refers to the system you use for managing information sharing within your company.

It’s an answer to the question: How do you cross-pollinate ideas in a large business and promote productive collaboration?

For your ECS to yield results, it needs to be reinforced with the right tools. These tools can include any of the following:

Email
Communication software
Project management software
Webinars
Social media
User forums

As you can see from the list, enterprise collaboration also extends to the customer. Without the customer’s input in the feedback loop, you’ll create an internal vacuum where ideas fall flat, as they don’t stand up to customer criticism. Taking on board customer feedback is an integral part of any successful ECS. According to a Microsoft survey, 77% of customers view brands more favorably when they invite customer feedback.

How can enterprise collaboration boost productivity?

Breaking the structure of the enterprise down and rebuilding it from the ground up could future-proof your company and set you up for success. There’s mounting evidence to suggest that smaller, cross-functional teams are more engaged with their work and more productive overall.

The groundbreaking McKinsey and Company report on the rise of the Agile enterprise cites the need for network and empowered teams as central to success. In the Agile framework, enterprises noted 20-30% more employee engagement. The reason for this dramatic increase in engagement is likely due to the formation of smaller cross-functional teams that enjoy more autonomy and purpose in their work.

Develop your enterprise collaboration platform with small team units as the building blocks, and you can combine the passion of the startup employee with the refined workflows of an established enterprise. The accountability created by assigning more responsibility to small teams, partnered with the heightened sense of autonomy, can empower employees to perform their best day-in, day-out.

What are the challenges of enterprise collaboration?

It isn’t all plain sailing, though, as enterprise collaboration can present challenges alongside opportunities.

With diffused responsibilities and smaller teams operating in a large enterprise, micromanaging can become a time-consuming issue. Enterprises work best with streamlined systems that employees can adhere to, as they reduce the likelihood of mistakes or miscommunications. However, in a cross-functional team environment that focuses on collaboration above everything else, projects can get stuck in the mire of creative thinking.

The expression ‘too many chefs spoil the broth’ rings true here, as you’ll invite feedback from many individuals under a collaborative system — this could slow down progress and even eat into profits. The key to overcoming this challenge is to provide employees with structural tools they can use to follow project progress and collaborate without too much disruption.

The importance of collaboration tools

67% of projects fail due to poor project management, which is an entirely avoidable issue if you have the right tools and systems to rely on. Specifically, project management and communication software can enhance the enterprise’s ability to be Agile and foster company-wide productivity.

Software allows you to visualize the process of pushing projects along the pipeline, evaluate individual and team performance according to key metrics, and more easily collaborate with features such as labeling and tagging.

Such software has taken on even more importance in the midst of the pandemic, as lockdowns and safety measures have scattered employees from central office locations. Remove the possibility of in-person discussion and collaboration, and your only solution is to recreate the work environment digitally.

Wrike fosters a culture of collaboration with a range of features geared towards big businesses. The software’s enterprise project management features allow you to stay on track with your quarterly goals, remove bottlenecks that slow progress, and empower your teams to produce their best work.

Start your free two-week trial today and see how Wrike can help you build for the future. Implement enterprise collaboration systems to help your employees stay engaged and put out their best work.

Rachael Kealy

Rachael is a Content Marketing Manager at Wrike. She has more than a decade of experience writing about every industry, from energy to entrepreneurship. She spent many years as a food writer and still loves nothing more than exploring new culinary experiences. Her passions are wide-ranging, including the themes of collaborative working, artificial intelligence, and the future of work.

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What Is an Enterprise Collaboration System?